Life and Thoughts and Such.

Month: October 2015

ooooh my goodness!! My friends, i’m so sorry i haven’t posted in so long!!
First things first… 🙂 While we were at Marth’s best friend’s wedding two weekends ago, (Oct. 11th) he took advantage of an amazing opportunity to have Caleb’s wife do a bouquet-toss fake-out…and he proposed!!
It was kindaaa the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me!!! 😀 He was so nervous, Amy was so nervous, but they both did wonderful and i never suspected a thing!!
After what was definitely one of the most amazing nights of my life, tho, the following week proved to be extremely stressful…My mom, i guess, didn’t realize that i wanted to have the wedding in New York instead of Maine, and we had several loud discussions in which much insults were spoken, and much crying was done…but thankfully that was resolved quickly and she just needed to get used to it i think…by Saturday (almost a week later) she was just fine with it all 🙂
I also work at our church with Mark’s sister, teaching preschool gym every Wednesday morning! So i’ll have cute preschooler stories for you every once in a while!! They’re so precious and they’ve already glued their sticky, tiny fingers to me, even tho I’ve only been there for two weeks!
Now, im in the process of planning all this wedding stuff on my own, for the most part…my mom and maid of honor (Kym; she’s my neighbor and best friend in Maine since i was 8. ^_^ ) have been helping me out, as well as Amy, because she just finished her wedding, so it’s not a bad gig, overall 🙂 stressful, but good! 😀
I feel like i couldn’t possibly be more in love with Marth than i am now (tho i’m sure this good thing will just get better!) and it’s so cool that everything that happens each day, whether we see eachother or don’t, whether we’re at work together, or sleeping on the couch on a Sunday afternoon after watching Naruto, or even after having a forceful conversation about our differing opinions, i know, more than ever before, that this is the man i want to spend the rest of my life with. I’ve known since March of 2014 that, if at all possible, i didn’t ever want to spend my life without him.
It’s all quite exciting!! 🙂

Recently, I’ve been thinking alot about other cultures and America.
And, because the internet is a place where anyone can give their opinion for the world to see, I have a two-fold question for you.
Part A – I’m genuinely interested in what you all think when you hear things about America?
Do you really hear as much about us as we hear about all of you? What’s a classic “American” stereotype?
Part B – What do you think is a distinguishing characteristic of your country?? Not necessarily what everyone else thinks, but what YOU think, and why?
For each country that comments, i’ll write a post about what I/ America know about your country, as well as any information i’ve been able to learn from you and a shoutout to your blog. 🙂

Here’s the guidelines:
1. I’d appreciate sincere comments. If your opinion is negative, that’s okay, but i won’t allow comments with cursing.
2. Opinions are one thing, plain snarkiness is another. Have tact. Don’t be a jerk.
3. Everywhere in the world, people are still people. This is simply a personal experiment to satisfy a curiosity, and not a debate about which country is best.

Guys, i really appreciate anything you have to offer. 🙂
Okay, Ready set go! 😀

“We used to play pretend, give eachother different names, we’d build a rocket ship, and we’d fly it far away, Used to dream of outer space, now they’re laughing in our face, saying ‘Wake up; you need to make money!’ …Ew.” (I know it’s ‘Yo’, but Marth and I always sing it ‘ew’.)

So i won’t keep you in suspense. the only reason i titled this post like click bait was because my original title was too long. Originally this was titled “Why you should never ask young couples when they’re getting married.”

I’ll tell you why.

Today, my mom called me today. N0w, understand my mom is great. I love her and she’s been thru alot in her life and her marriage and i honestly really respect and care about her which is why this type of conversation is so difficult to have with her. We have a kind of strained relationship for one reason and one reason only. She says things, and then says i misunderstood her, and she actually said something else. When how she got from point A to point B doesn’t really make much sense. Alot of the times she has very valid points, but she doesn’t seem to realize that i care about what she says and i want to do what she says, but it doesn’t really work out alot.

For example. She tells me alot about things that should be done before i get married. Marth and i should have better jobs. We should move to back to Maine. We should know what we want to do with our lives. We should have a better house. We should have _______. And ________ and _______, and you name it. Basically. We shouldn’t have to worry about anything. I’ve explained to her that as Bible College students, we met BECAUSE we didn’t know what we wanted to do with our lives. Now we work at a retail store, which i know she doesn’t think highly of at all. Even if that retail store will eventually give us $15 per hour and full health benefits, 40k and all that happiness.

Usually she harps on me, because i’m her kid, and she’s allowed to tell me i’m smart enough to be a theoretical physicist or “anything I want”, but what if right now i just want to someday be a manager of the art/hobby store i work for?? Cuz i love it, and it’s amazing. I seriously wouldn’t want to do anything else right now, EXCEPT be a theoretical physicist (which i am definitely not smart enough to do; i’m no good at math.)
But today was a little different. Today she had alot to say about Marth, and it was really stressful, because every time she brings him up, i immediately respond with “I can’t force the will of God upon him. I can’t MAKE him do what you think he should be doing.” Seriously, every time she brings him up, it stresses me out. Because he’s another human being and i refuse to pin him in a corner and tell him to get his act together, like she wants me to. She thinks we should move back to Maine, because she wants him to “grow up” like i did when i moved out. She doesn’t like that he appears to lack the motivation to support me. Which isn’t true!! We just…in the words of my past boss, Sandy, “Being a young adult is far harder now than it used to be. There’s less money; less everything. It’s just harder.”
No other human being on the planet has gotten the college-aged kid like Sandy Binnette. She just rocks the world.
Seriously, tho. It was just a stressful conversation and i ended up crying, just like i always do when i get off the phone with my mom. She’s not keeping me from getting married. I’m a grown-up kid. I don’t have to do anything i don’t want to, and i can do anything i DO want to. But i really do want her to WANT me to get married. I DON’T want to have my motives and decisions questioned at every turn, and i feel like she’s trying to scare me into doing what she wants me to do. Because it’s a scary part of your life; you’re setting yourself up for how the rest of your life’s gonna go down. I’m not an idiot. She acts like i haven’t considered anything.

*Sigh* So, in conclusion, friends: Please, please, for the LOVE OF GOD, don’t ask your young adult/college-aged friends when they’re getting married and please don’t ask them when they’re having kids, if they already are married. It’s a personal thing and sometimes has way more complications than they wish there were. Sometimes all it does is stress them out, while they remember all the things keeping them from getting married, and all the uncertainties in this part of their lives, and how much they wish it wasn’t this hard. Because right now they don’t have a square one to start from next, except maybe save money.

….Any advice any of you have on the topic would be cool. Cuz i’m kinda depressed about the whole thing right now. Thanks.

❤ Meyla.

“Wish we could turn back time, to the good old days….But now we’re stressed out.” -twenty one pilots, Blurryface ‘Stressed Out’

Riiighty-Oh. 🙂
So today i went thru and realized that my face is so sensitive that most of the things i use aren’t actually specifically for your face. But, hey, guess, what? They work awesomely 🙂
Just as a refresher; i’m a K-Beauty/Skincare enthusiast and also as broke as the day is long. I have extremely sensitive combination skin, and my acne spots are my chin and t-zone.

#1 – Shea Butter Soap for Additives
This is completely raw shea butter soap, with no fragrances, additives or anything else besides SOAP. And shea butter. I melt it and this time around threw in some coconut oil, vegetable glycerin and tea tree oil before i put it in the mold 🙂 It doesn’t foam much, because the additive that causes soap to foam can sometimes be not-good for sensitive skin. Good for face and hands. 🙂 Hobby Lobby sells it in a huge block that makes probably 12 normal-sized bars of soap for $10.99. (It also goes on sale for 30% off…check the website out; hobbylobby.com. ^_^ ) #promotion!

#2 – Organic Coconut Oil

Ideally, unrefined coconut oil is your best bet. But, because i’m cheap, and the unrefined kind is about $5 more, i opted for the refined organic kind. But, hey, if you can afford the unrefined, it’s really the way to go. 🙂 I use this all over my body instead of any other kind of moisturizer and Marth constantly comments on how soft my skin is ^_^ It’s a cream-like or solid consistency below 73 degrees, but it will be liquid at anything above that…I’ve tried keeping it in the fridge but that just makes it a brick so i wouldn’t recommend that either…Cool, dry place away from sunlight is good. 🙂 $8.56 at Wegmans, but you should be able to find coconut oil in the cooking oil section of any grocery store or walmart 🙂

#3 Vegetable Glycerin
I also got this at Hobby Lobby…its a big thing in skincare and face products! Honestly, i’m not quite sure what it is or exactly why it does what it does…but it’s a vegetable product that’s a skin protectent, has a thick liquid consistency and an almost sweet taste (but don’t eat it.) I use it when i take off nail polish, i paint the raw glycerin straight on my nails. I’m telling you, it’s a miracle thing. I’ve struggled with paper-thin nails and a nail-biting habit most of my life, but after doing this once a day for three days, my nails not only got harder, but grew a TON! I wish i had before/after pictures for you… I keep 1 part glycerin and 10 parts filtered water in a 2oz condiment cup in my bathroom and put it on my face with a cotton puff two times a day. 🙂
One warning about glycerin tho. What i DO know it does is that it absorbs the water in the air, so thats why it’s so good for hydrating your skin and nails. But don’t overdo it or you’ll basically look like you’ve been in a bath or a pool for too long. The only things i would use straight glycerin for are my nails, no more than once a day, and my lips, no more than twice a day. (it does wonders for dry lips too!!)
$3.99 at Hobby Lobby for a decent-sized bottle, in the soap-making part of the Crafts Department. 🙂 My mom says it’s also at Walmart, but i’ve never been able to find it… Probably near the bandaids??

#4 Tea Tree Essential OilWhen i was working camp in the summer of 2013, alot of the Asian girls on staff used tea tree oil and tea tree oil-based products. It has a very strong, almost “bite” of a smell to it, and alot of the American girls complained about it, which ticked me off. I mean, jeez, there’s no need to make people feel bad about their health and beauty or their food, especially when it OBVIOUSLY works way better than ours! But, anyhow. Because it’s so strong, i would NOT recommend putting straight tea tree oil on your skin. i dilute it the same as the glycerin; 1 to 2 parts tea tree oil to 10 parts filtered water, and keep it in a condiment cup. It’s good for drying up acne spots, so if you really want to, you can make a more concentrated bit and just spot-treat with it. 🙂 This was $6.99 at Hobby Lobby in – you guessed it!- the soap-making department. It only comes out a drop at a time, so the tiny bottle i have has lasted me over 2 months already and it’s not even half gone. 🙂

#5 Raw Honey

Now, raw honey is your best option. Alot of things say “pure clover honey”, but they’re really mostly water. The packets you get at Starbucks and the plastic bears are not a good choice, even tho they are cheaper. Honey has natural anti-bacterial purposes and it helps bring down the red, irritated look which make it SUPER good for an acne-troubled face. I pour a little in the lid, and spread it all over my chin and t-zone, sometimes even my whole face if i’m getting in the shower later or have time to get messy, and let it sit for at least 10 minutes.
Best bet for purchasing?? Hit up your local Farmer’s Market. I know exactly where Alden NY is, and i got this for $4.95 at a tiny little general store and deli about 10 minutes from my house 🙂

Cool!! So now you know the 5 natural things i use on my face, combined with my MISSHA pore-correcting toner, TONYMOLY snail moisturizing gel, EVERYONE face/hands/body lotion, and STRIDEX Sensitive skin acne pads (bonus broke kid’s tip for making stuff like that last?? Cut it into quarters. Seriously. Those are almost as big as the palm of my hand. I don’t need that to rub down my chin and t-zone real quick. it’ll make a can with 50 pads last 2 months, using twice a day). ^_^

Today’s find while i was at -you guessed it again- Kate’s Country Cousins Farmer’s Market, was this soap. It has Brazilian clay and charcoal powder in it, both of which are awesome for removing impurities, and it’s goat’s milk-based, which makes your skin super soft!! i’ve only used it once, but the redness on my chin is less irritated already, and my cheekbone area is super soft!
$5.00 and a great conversation with a small-business owner 🙂

Alrighty kiddos 🙂 I’m typing this up on Marth’s desktop computer while he plays Destiny on the X-Box 🙂 We look like a cute little gaming couple; the desks are right next to eachother and i have his headset on, listening to twenty-one pilots so i don’t disturb him…we break for kisses everyonce in a while tho ^_^
I’ll post a song later, and i hope you all have a fabulous night! 🙂
Peace Out – Meyla ❤